As wet weather lashes Perth's southern regions Kirsty Buchanan is spending her nights on the cold, rainy, streets of Mandurah — one of many in the seaside city doing it tough.
As wet weather lashes Perth's southern regions Kirsty Buchanan is spending her nights on the cold, rainy, streets of Mandurah — one of many in the Western Australian seaside city doing it tough.Almost a quarter of people without a home in Mandurah are sleeping on the street or in improvised dwellings
"Being winter, this week out of all the weeks has been the coldest. [It's] cold. But it's the boredom as well," she said.Timothy Tonkin spent six years living on the streets in the Peel region and now shared a motorhome with his friend while he tried to find a house and a job. "I would love to go back to work but work is hard to find in my situation – no licence and no proper qualifications.A recent Deloitte Access Economics report, adopted by the City of Mandurah, outlined unemployment rates in Mandurah as "stubbornly higher" than Perth with a "nationally significant" level of people dependent on rent assistance payments.